THE sessions on film and TV at this year’s Karachi Literature Festival gave one insight into an industry that is nostalgic, patriotic, and struggling to find a happy middle ground where profit and artistic expression can go hand-in-hand.

The constant tension between art, patriotism and commercial interests was explored by most panellists at these sessions — from veteran actors such as Sahira Kazmi and Hina Khwaja Bayat to up-and-coming filmmakers such as Zinda Bhaag’s Meenu Gaur.

At one of the sessions, ‘Serial aur Soap: Rang Badaltay Dramay’, actor Khaled Anam, for instance, referred to those working in the product development department of television channels as “ghee sellers” pointing out, “They’re MBAs. What do they know about dramas?”

He wasn’t the only, or the last actor, at the festival to emphasise the constant clash between big-business interests and artistic pursuits. Most of Khaled’s fellow panellists, which included the who’s who of television, such as Hina Khwaja Bayat, Neelofar Abbasi, Sahira Kazmi, Rashid Sami and Shahnaz Ramzi seemed to agree with Khaled.

Bayat, for instance, argued that commercialisation had corrupted good storytelling, adding that she spent so much time “reading bad scripts, there was no time [left] for [good] literature,” while Sami told the story of how the script for Khuda Ki Basti, based on the eponymous literary classic, is languishing in production due to competition and politics between two TV channels.

While most of the emphasis was on how creativity and artistic talent is often being suffocated by the quixotic quest for better ratings, the discussion ended on a positive note. According to Kazmi, “good plays are being made, but there are so many bad dramas [being produced], the good ones tend to get lost”. But she also pointed out that the high volume of production meant there can be more variety than is currently offered by channels.

Abbasi, similarly, emphasised that while change is inevitable, a large pool of talent and technology, and alternative distribution models, make the future a very promising one: “I was reading how in India, they’re putting up serials and dramas on YouTube for free. YouTube doesn’t work in Pakistan but there are other such websites. In addition, we are a talented nation of people; you won’t find such talent anywhere else.”

While the sessions on Pakistani dramas and movies revealed an industry that was nostalgic for the ‘golden days of PTV,’ that on alternative cinema, titled ‘Can Local Cinema Travel Globally’, provided insight into an industry that is innovative, forward-looking and constantly reinventing itself.

Documentary filmmaker Munizae Jahangir, Bangalore-based theatre actor Sanjay Iyer and Meenu Gaur explored ways indie films can be made in an era of big-budget films and multiplexes, and came up with some very interesting case studies: pop-up cinemas, raising funds through social media, or legally distributing movies through a company that sells pirated videos.

The fact that such business models, which turn the traditional one on its head, have resulted in great success for filmmakers prove that parallel cinema does have a future. As Gaur put it, “you have to make the film believing in your content; films are possible with a small budget”.

Her onstage colleagues seemed to agree, pointing out that if you’re a filmmaker determined to tell your story, and are open to exploring unconventional means to do so, your dreams just might come true.

One such filmmaker cited during the panel discussion was Pawan Kumar, who made the Kannada indie film Lucia on a budget of 5.5 million rupees, raising funds for his project through his blog and Facebook in 27 days. Kumar then found his audience through a pay-per-view model on the internet.

The dominant narrative in the media is how the movie industry is being crippled by the big bad internet so it was refreshing to hear that the opposite is also true.

As Iyer — who also acted in Lucia — rightly pointed out: “Lucia ended up having 170 producers so it had 170 highly motivated distributors. The shocking part is that people paid for it in this day and age of torrenting and downloading. Niche audiences [can now be] reached in private spaces so perhaps the concept of the multiplex is fading.”

Overall the sessions were thought provoking, and also added some unexpected glam in the form of the film star Meera. The ‘surprise’ guest panellist for the ‘Transaction or Transformation in Film and TV’ session turned up very fashionably late —when the debate was more or less wrapping up — and used her five minutes onstage to plug her upcoming movies.